This weekend, civil rights activists returned to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, recreating a familiar scene from the past, on the bridge that once helped galvanize the passage of the Voting Rights Act. 

A new wave of redistricting fights is weakening Black political power, just as the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., is again the place activists are using to rally the public.

The day-long gathering connected today’s map-drawing battles to the 1965 Selma marches, when violence against peaceful demonstrators pushed the country toward federal voting protections.

The event began at Selma’s Tabernacle Baptist Church, where Rev. Sofía Betancourt, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, addressed the congregation.

“We gather on this day in mourning, in lamentation, in outrage, and in deep, profound love,” Betancourt said, according to The New York Times. “We gather in the knowledge that we must rise up and say, Never again.” 

Marchers and speakers delved into the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, which made it easier for Southern lawmakers to redraw districts in ways that can split majority-Black communities and boost Republican control. In Alabama, that dispute is already tied to a map that could affect the district held by Rep. Shomari Figures, while other states are moving quickly on their own redistricting plans.

The choice of Selma during such a pivotal moment was deliberate. The bridge remains one of the most powerful symbols of the civil rights era, and veterans of the movement say the same struggle for fair access to the ballot is playing out in a new form, through courthouse fights and legislative maps. It’s been hailed as Jim Crow 2.0. 

The protests also reflected a broader sense of urgency across the South, where voting rights are simultaneously being tested in state capitols, federal courts, and local election boards. 

“We’re in this fight for the long game,” said Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin to a crowd, per The Times. “It requires you, in this moment, not to be silent. It requires you not to give up, to not only have hope but turn that into something tangible.”